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I don't know what to make of these findings. It says the risk of stroke had increased by 60% for those with HIV, but then said the risk of stroke was still very low. My grandfather had a stroke and grandmother had a brain hemorrhage. That is how it has always been described for her, but I guess that means a stroke or aneurysm.

But if you're gonna have a stroke Theodora, you should hope for a massive one. The kind which sees you dead before you hit the toilet floor. You don't wanna be left horribly alive, paralysed and drooling in some nursing home.

I had an uncle who died from a stroke whilst he was perched on the lav. Strained so hard, he ruptured a blood vessel in his brain. True story.

But if you're gonna have a stroke Theodora, you should hope for a massive one. The kind which sees you dead before you hit the toilet floor. You don't wanna be left horribly alive, paralysed and drooling in some nursing home.

I had an uncle who died from a stroke whilst he was perched on the lav. Strained so hard, he ruptured a blood vessel in his brain. True story.

You're not constipated, are you?

MtD

Well, I've talked enough about the huge loads I drop. They are so big that I feel like I'm going to have a stroke---get the heart thumping in the head where you can feel it. This sounds sexual the way I've phrased it. It takes about 3 flushes--sometimes got to chop them up..lol. You can just wipe off the knife and it is ready to go to slice the ham. I'm kidding. I use a spatula.

I call bullshit on this study. Although I only bothered to read the abstract. The simple fact is that young people have less health problems and as you age you have more. HIV used to wipe out people when they were still young so they didn't get to experience all the wonderful problems associated with an aging body. Now that people with HIV are living longer they are experiencing the same health problems that the rest of the population experience.

Of course there has been an increase in health problems of people living with HIV in the last 15 years. But mainly because they are actually living longer. So this 'research' has just proved that aging people actually ... age.

I wish I could get some grant money for sitting on my ass and pumping out pointless 'research' like this. I really hope that funding for this didn't come out of funds for HIV/AIDS research.

I call bullshit on this study. Although I only bothered to read the abstract. The simple fact is that young people have less health problems and as you age you have more. HIV used to wipe out people when they were still young so they didn't get to experience all the wonderful problems associated with an aging body. Now that people with HIV are living longer they are experiencing the same health problems that the rest of the population experience.

I call bullshit on your bullshit. The "rest of the population" don't experience strokes in their 50s, as were the majority of the people in the study you didn't read. Acceleration of the aging process among HIV-positives and its concomitant diseases and disabilities is more and more recognized as a vital area of concern and needed research. Osteopenia, for example, is not common among 40- and 50-year-olds, especially men. The comorbidities of 70- and 80-year-olds should not be occurring among those who are in their 40s and 50s. If you spend some time on this site, you can read about multiple examples of this from other members. Also see this:

Proportionally, loads more HIV-positive folk smoke compared to the general population.

The cohort generating the increased risk will include many folk who have had HIV a long time, maybe come back from the brink. This will make the figures different than, say, a cohort of people who started treatment in good time.

Everyone should have their cardiovascular risk assessed annually. This is very individual. Family history, smoking, age and gender are [probably still more important than HIV in determining a person's risk of stroke or heart attack.

I'm surprised to hear this. Do you know if they were smoking before they were HIV+ or started smoking after they were infected?

Why would this surprise you? Smoking rates are higher in all the major US risk groups in the first place -- gays, ethnic minorities and IV drug users. What difference does it make if they were already smoking before their HIV diagnosis?

Why would this surprise you? Smoking rates are higher in all the major US risk groups in the first place -- gays, ethnic minorities and IV drug users. What difference does it make if they were already smoking before their HIV diagnosis?

Many people on here talk about becoming more health conscious after being diagnosed with HIV. I thought they might have quit smoking.

Many people on here talk about becoming more health conscious after being diagnosed with HIV. I thought they might have quit smoking.

There have been copious studies in the treatment news section of poz.com on this issue, but aside from that it's not a great idea to draw conclusions on amounts of "anything" just from one isolated HIV forum membership on the internet. Not to mention what someone claims during their first year of diagnosis (quitting smoking, drinking, doing drugs) doesn't mean they maintain that. I quit smoking when I was diagnosed too, but once I was convinced that I wasn't going to keel over when the anyone breathed on me I started smoking again.

New research suggests that people infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may be up to three times more likely to have a stroke compared to those not affected with HIV. The study is published in the January 19, 2011, online issue of Neurologyģ, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"Our findings showed that stroke hospitalizations in the United States decreased by seven percent in the general population within the last decade while stroke hospitalizations for people with HIV rose 67 percent," said Bruce Ovbiagele, MD, MSc, Professor of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

For the study, scientists reviewed all stroke hospitalizations in the United States within the last decade. The number of stroke diagnoses in the general population declined with 71,742 fewer strokes overall. However, stroke diagnoses among people with HIV increased by 537 more strokes from the start of the decade. For those with HIV, the study showed an increase in ischemic strokes but no increase in hemorrhagic strokes. An ischemic stroke is caused by a blood clot and is the most common type of stroke.

"The average age for a stroke among people with HIV was in the 50s, which is much lower than that of those without HIV. This finding suggests that HIV or HIV treatments may be directly related to stroke occurrence," said Ovbiagele. "Indeed, one potential explanation is the increasingly widespread use of combination antiretroviral medications in HIV-infected people. While these therapies have greatly increased life expectancy, they may boost the presence of risk factors associated with stroke. Another possibility is that longer exposure to HIV as a result of greater survival, even at low viral load levels, may allow for the virus to increase stroke risk."

One day I would like to see some study (about MODERN days HIVERS -with access to meds-) that says:

- HIVERs have more sex than others- HIVERs have more fun than others- HIVERs have more $ than others- HIVERs have more luck than others (at least at lotteries...)- HIVERs have more friends than others- HIVERs have more interesting challenges than others

I do not need no F*?*g statistician for this...

That's the feeling I get from reading you guys

(note: people who have the luxury of falling in love more than once in a lifetime are sure to have HEART problems ;-) )

But if you're gonna have a stroke Theodora, you should hope for a massive one. The kind which sees you dead before you hit the toilet floor. You don't wanna be left horribly alive, paralysed and drooling in some nursing home.

My aunt Marion had a debilitating stroke. She started having headaches and then had a stroke which left her unable talk other than to say "yeah". She could move her right arm to some degree and turn her head but was otherwise unable to move. She was also unable to write. You could tell that she understood what was going on around her but was unable to communicate. It seemed the harder she tried to communicate the less she was able to do it. She was in a nursing home for years trapped in her own body. Once my mother went to visit her and Marion had tears streaming down her face. My mother knew something unusual was going on and discovered her leg was broken, obviously by nursing home staff when bathing her or putting her in a chair. Who knows how long she had been lying there in pain. She was in the nursing home for about 15 years before she finally died.

I had an uncle who died from a stroke whilst he was perched on the lav. Strained so hard, he ruptured a blood vessel in his brain. True story.

One of my coworkers died that way. His 4 year old daughter called 911 because her daddy was in the bathroom and wouldn't come out. When EMS broke the bathroom door they found him dead beside the toilet. He was 40.

One day I would like to see some study (about MODERN days HIVERS -with access to meds-) that says:

- HIVERs have more sex than others- HIVERs have more fun than others- HIVERs have more $ than others- HIVERs have more luck than others (at least at lotteries...)- HIVERs have more friends than others- HIVERs have more interesting challenges than others

I do not need no F*?*g statistician for this...

That's the feeling I get from reading you guys

(note: people who have the luxury of falling in love more than once in a lifetime are sure to have HEART problems ;-) )

Eric

For you, who is someone who spouts volumes of text on the subject, to feel this way surprises me.

Not that it makes a difference, but I didn't start smoking until I was diagnosed. Like I was concerned about lung cancer, wasn't going to live to be 30 anyways. The majority of my gay friends did/do smoke so there might be a correlation between lifestyle and strokes.

Since the topic of smoking has come up-- I've seen the studies that more gay men smoke than their straight counterparts. I always wondered why this is. Is it just the "gay lifestyle"? I've seen even gay guys who work out and are all muscled up who smoke. I always thought it was strange to see gay guys come out of the gym and light up. I use to do this after leaving the gym. In the general population, smokers are usually from lower education/lower socio-economic backgrounds. But, we always hear gay men are more educated and have higher disposal incomes than straight counterparts--probably due to not having kids. Are gay men more likely to take health risks? Is it the feeling among many gay men that we are forever young? I'm not sure of the statistics anymore. I would say half my gay friends smoke and half don't. I do know drug usage seems to be much higher among my gay friends. But, I think I'm getting off-topic from my own thread.

Since the topic of smoking has come up-- I've seen the studies that more gay men smoke than their straight counterparts. I always wondered why this is. Is it just the "gay lifestyle"? I've seen even gay guys who work out and are all muscled up who smoke. I always thought it was strange to see gay guys come out of the gym and light up. I use to do this after leaving the gym. In the general population, smokers are usually from lower education/lower socio-economic backgrounds. But, we always hear gay men are more educated and have higher disposal incomes than straight counterparts--probably due to not having kids. Are gay men more likely to take health risks? Is it the feeling among many gay men that we are forever young? I'm not sure of the statistics anymore. I would say half my gay friends smoke and half don't. I do know drug usage seems to be much higher among my gay friends. But, I think I'm getting off-topic from my own thread.

Ever heard Bonnie Tyler's cover of Meatloaf's "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad?" It's disco, but not awful.

I listen to junk like that on weekends. When I can pull myself out of Freddie Mercury's "These are the Days of Our lives." Makes these discussions seem fun, but ultimately pointless.

We are all marked, and whether Jim Steinman or Sylvester takes the mike, we all have our songs to sing, our own poignant words to add, but it is, at the end of the day, the same quilt. We add to it, in increments. But our names are written already.

I am sorry to have nothing more positive to add to this.

Not tonight.

Logged

"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."